Energy independence - We need a new realism on energy

THERE is a common root to the terrible hardships facing the people of Japan and Libya.

Japan is fighting to avert a nuclear disaster that has the capacity to make the earthquake and the lethal tsunami it caused seem almost tolerable. As the world’s population watches on a considerable portion of it is worrying that they might, sometime in the future, be in the same frightening position as the people living near the Fukushima Daiichi reactors.

Japan’s very understandable desire for energy independence is one of the root causes of this terrible situation. Four decades ago, when Japan found its post-war economic recovery stalled by the 1970’s oil crisis it made a commitment to nuclear generation so they could depend less on the oil producing countries. This policy allowed Japan become the world’s third — second until last year — strongest economy. Now Japan has over 50 nuclear power plants to generate at least some of the energy needed to realise its social and economic ambitions.

Libyan citizens are caught in a pincer movement as the world intervenes forcefully to try to constrain — if not remove — their dictator of 42 years. Hundreds of lives have been lost already and many more could be lost before something close to stability returns. The longer that takes the more lives will be lost.

They are in this position because Libya’s great oil wealth sustained the Gaddafi autocracy and many others in the region. Once again the world’s need for energy shapes lives in an unintended but profound way.

In Ireland we still import about 90% of our energy. Though there are great schemes to reduce that figure the gnawing feeling that we are not doing enough quickly enough persists.

Late last year the then Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan announced a “roadmap” for the development of offshore energy that claimed Ireland could export 10 times the amount of electricity we use domestically. He also told a conference in Dublin that renewable onshore energy could “almost” supply 40% of our electricity by 2020 — just nine years away. He also suggested that as much as 10 times the State’s total electricity requirement of 5 gigawatts-6gigawatts — some 50GW-60GW — could be exported by 2050 if offshore wind and marine resources were exploited.

These are tremendous predictions, almost bordering on the implausible, but it would be wonderful if they were realised. Nevertheless a lot remains to be done if they are to be reached.

In our case there is an added urgency as Britain, a source of a lot of our imported energy, faces its own challenges. Many of its coal and nuclear plants are approaching the end of their life and they, like us, face a huge challenge on reducing carbon emissions. If Britain’s capacity to generate is reduced energy exports, naturally enough, will be the first to suffer.

The terrible situations in Japan and Libya remind us that there is no quick fix to this challenge that will define our future. It would be more reassuring if we had a full cabinet minister dedicated to energy and nothing else. If that person was able to announce a programme that was rational, unemotional, plausible and apolitical it would be even more reassuring.